Well, the ‘rona is still ongoing, but that hasn’t stopped me from making the most of every day! Honestly, it feels like I’m on vacation 24/7. With all my free time, I’ve gotten to explore some really beautiful parts of the island. Since so many places are closed, my days have been full of beach lounging, hiking, and watching scary movies at Sam’s house. One evening, while Kei and Adamir were visiting, Sam thought it’d be fun to sneak into Kualoa Ranch to check out the old Jurassic Park movie sets and props. So of course, we were all in. We piled into Sam’s truck and parked across the street. When the coast was clear, we ran across, hopped into some of the tour buses, and made our way toward the bunker museum. Somehow, Sam found a way in but we had to climb up this super sketchy ladder to get into the building. He made me go first, and I was freaking out, thinking I was going to pop up right in front of a security guard. Thankfully, I didn’t. We made it into the museum and ran around checking everything out. What we didn’t know was that the big T-Rex statue inside was motion-sensored. So when we walked by, it suddenly started roaring and moving and we completely freaked out. We sprinted out of there so fast. After that, we heard what sounded like someone coming maybe on an ATV or patrol. We quickly ducked into the bushes and waited until things quieted down. On the way back, we were cracking up. Aysia said it was the most rebellious thing she’s ever done. I thought it was a pretty fun thrill. Oh and while we were inside, we had to pull our shirts up over our faces because of the security cameras. Classic.
Of course, I hiked to even more waterfalls and did my favorite hike Crouching Lion again with some friends. Every time I do that hike, I’m in awe of how beautiful Oʻahu is. I count my blessings every single day that I get to live here. Every rainbow, every wave—it all feels magical. I honestly love that nobody’s really working right now. All my friends are always down to hang out or go on some kind of adventure. I also conquered the hike "Three Peaks" and made another trek out to Chinaman’s Hat. This time, though, we decided to start from the opposite side of the beach. We thought it wouldn’t make a difference... but it definitely did. We ended up swimming for almost two hours trying to get to the hat. Normally, we just walk across the reef, but from where we started, it got super deep and once we realized we were too far in to turn back. We were bouncing on our toes, trying to keep our heads above water as we slowly made our way across the ocean. We were so thirsty by the time we made it. We also hit up the tide pools to swim! The water was crystal clear it was hard to tell how deep it was until we jumped in.
Sam and I also decided it’d be fun to go on another campout. We loved camping up on the ridge a couple of months ago, so we figured why not try another one? This time, we headed up to Kaʻa Crater. This hike had everything I love: we crossed rivers, saw waterfalls, walked through lush foliage, and even climbed up a waterfall. It was a jam-packed adventure just getting to the top. What we weren’t expecting was all the rain and mud... On the way up, we were being so careful to avoid stepping in mud, because if our legs or feet got dirty, we’d have to sleep like that in the tent. Not ideal. As we hiked, the clouds rolled in and totally covered us. With the fog settling into the crater, it honestly felt like we were hiking through a swamp. Just before sunset, we finally made it to the top. We quickly set up camp and dove into the tent to hide from the storm. The night wasn’t quite as wild as our Kuliʻouʻou campout, but it was pretty close. We didn’t pitch our tent on the flattest ground, so all night we kept sliding down and bumping into each other. I think we got maybe a few hours of sleep. Still, we managed to play a few rounds of Butt Clown (our weird go-to game), and the sunrise the next morning totally made up for it. That view wow!!! The best part? As we started hiking back down, we found this huge, flat grassy area just a few hundred feet from where we camped. If we had just kept walking a little further, we would've had the perfect spot. Oh well classic us!
